


Rift

by rustedservos



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Fusion, M/M, gem au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-23
Updated: 2017-01-23
Packaged: 2018-09-19 08:11:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9429143
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rustedservos/pseuds/rustedservos
Summary: Ratchet is a Gem forged to heal others. Drift is a Gem who haunts his thoughts. Ratchet finally decides to do something for himself and go after the gem who keeps coming back.





	

Ratchet knew that fusion between mechs was rather common, especially with all of the boosts it gave to war frames. Fusions were so common it was rare to find anyone without a partner they preferred. 

Ratchet, being a medic, very rarely fused, even in the middle of the war. It was incredibly difficult for him to fuse, actually, based on the programming he had been forged with. His gem sparkled on the back of his right hand, a small deep red rubellite crystal that always seemed to catch the light. He was always called on to fix gems who were corrupting, to patch up cracks and find new ways for the gems of the Autobots to defeat the rebel Decepticons.

So when he went against the councils orders and opened up a clinic for everyone, even those who were not fit for war, he kept quiet about it, finding gems huddled against one another, one or the other too corrupted or too fractured to stay fused. His spark churned as his gem glowed before he fixed the partners, watching them happily spill into one another again, a new mech standing in thier place before they walked out of his clinic.

When he found a scared speedster huddled into his clinic’s door with a cracked gem, he waved him inside, fixing it his gem before his optics noticed the smooth, albeit dirty, lines of the mech. For a mech to get to this point, and still look as good as he did…… 

If Ratchet was a weaker mech, he would have asked to fuse, to feel what all that power must have felt like, but at the same time….he needed to stay focused. He couldnt afford to have any attachments, and he had seen fusion, both good and bad. He didnt want to get addicted to the feeling of another one wrapped around him, becoming a part of him to make a stronger being.

So, he watched the other gem leave after telling him he was special, trying to make sure the other mech knew how unique he was, to both Ratchet and Homeworld. 

So, millenia later, when he runs into that same gem, he cant help but felt a little flutter as a soft glow ebbs from his gem, which he hides behind his frame. He was older, having fused rarely and finding that each time he did, he lacked the want to disengage with the mech he had chosen. HE had seen friends shattered before him, corrupted even beyond his own expertise. He had killed his own share of gems, walking off battlefields covered in beautiful, shimmering dust, his gem’s glow muted by the remains of the gems lost that day.

His hands ached, his gem cracking around the base, and he found he didnt care. Maybe his programming had corrupted after that last desperate fuse where his partner had been shattered while he survived. His gem ached as he remembered the golden gem with the brilliant smile that rivaled the sun, and he rubbed at it and his aching hands as the beautiful fusion walked towards him.

“Good to see you, kid.” He said softly, optics dim from long hours at his makeshift medbay, dust from other shattered gems smeared across his frame and his hands. His gem pulsed weakly the closer the mech walked towards him, and with only a simple nod, he walked past him. Ratchet sighed, rubbing a glittering hand over his faceplates and feeling the grit of the gems scratch into his plating. Perfect. He caught sight of different, subtle changes along the lines of the others frame, a new gem tucked around the others plating, a few swords strapped to his frame. Maybe he had gone through a reformation or two since last seeing him…..? Primus knows Ratchet had, despite him being as peaceful as possible on the field and in the medbay.

When they were at Delphi, and the mech, finally introduced as Drift, stuck around him, hovering and quickly with his blade towards anyone with corruption along thier plating, Ratchet was unsure of what the others intent was. Sure, he was still slagging hot, but it was clear that the now-fusion had changed. There was a edge of darkness around him, his gems darker and with tiny permanent microcracks in the otherwise flawless material. Ratchet’s digits twitched with a need to run over the others gems, to see what kind of fusion they would make. To feel the strength of the others new frame as it wrapped around him, thier essences merging together, gems glowing brightly…..

He rubbed at his gem as a crack widened, stretching slowly before stopping. His form wavered, denta grinding against the pain before he forced himself to move on. Drift gave him a concerned look that he waved off.

“Im fine.” He said, before he caught sight of Pharma, a mech who he almost merged with, behind the glass, a message clearly written on his hand. Ratchet whirled around, Drift moving foward with a sword extended, reaching for Drift to pull him back as his gem glowed brightly through the dust that was almost permanently caked onto it, his form wavering as it glowed-

-and then Drift moved away, intent on following Pharma as the clearly cracked gem ran cackling out of the the room. Ratchet moved to follow, leaving Drift behind before he caught the other mech on the roof, a blaster held in corrupted hands. His form bulged oddly, strange pockets of coloration rippling over his form as he struggled against the disease raging through his gem. His digits twitched as Drift came out, cutting off Pharma’s hand as his own turned into monsterous claws, a low feral growl rippling out of his mutating body. Drift edged closer, hands held up in a placating manner as his gems glowed, drawing the attention of the corrupted mech. He reached out, white digits twitching against the others plating as his own corrupted gem glowed, thier forms shifting and glowing before what was left of Ratchet screamed against Drift coming closer, not wanting to corrupt him too- 

-and just like that, they were one, stumbling through the base, growling and groaning as the corruption had more gem to corrupt, more chances to spread over thier larger frame, and somewhere buried under the corruption, Ratchet realized that this….this felt right, despite the agonizing pain and inability to stop the corruption through his programming.

First Aid came to them, talking to them and realizing what happened, naming them Rift. Rift smiled through a malformed mouth, fangs thrusting through ruined lips before the corruption itself slowed, the glow from First Aid’s own gem cutting through the fog of poison rushing through their form. Their gems glowed, all three of them, before they fell apart in a flash of color, each reaching for one another before they realized that they were in public, and that would probably never happen again. Ratchet’s optics slipped closed to find Drift’s own dim ones peering concernedly down at him, his hand held tightly in the speedsters own.

When they returned to the ship, Drift was distant but always there, a presence in Ratchet’s gem and his processor. His gem glowed the brightest when he was around, a subtle tug towards the speedsters position that he never could quite get to dissipate. But he ignored it, back to the crush of idiot gems who cracked and fractured too easily. 

When Drift was thrown off the ship by thier idiot gem of a captain, Ratchet couldnt ignore the drive to find the fusion any longer. His gem was dull, the microfractures spreading as he continued to rub his newly formed hands, the ones that Drift won for him by fusing with him, saving him from the corruption. He appointed First Aid, who traveled with them after the disaster at Delphi, to CMO, and left with barely a goodbye to anyone else on the ship.

So, he took a tiny ship, and left, following his gem and his intuition about the fusion he was after.

When he found him on this tiny, backwards planet, he felt what could be explained as anticipation and excitement as he walked onto the first new soil he had been on since Drift had left. And the fusion was not hard to spot. His gem glowed the closer he got, his steps quickening as Drift seemed to know that he was close, himself. He turned, optic ridges furrowed, before his face lit up at the sight of the medic. Ratchet felt the years and the pain melt off his form as he laughed, faceplates wide with a smile as he reached for the speedster. White hands reached for red as red reached for white; thier forms glowing and becoming shapeless before merging, forming Rift again.

Rift felt light, spinning around as he laughed, a deep, rumbly laugh that echoed through the area as all four of his optics opened, gems sparkling with happiness as the rightness of fusion settled over them. 

This...this was home.


End file.
